LYDIA Buckingham, a student at Wellington School, has secured a place in the British Maths Olympiad squad which trained in Hungary over the New Year.

Last November, Lydia sat the British Mathematical Olympiad, a three-hour exam containing six complex and involved mathematical problems for which full written solutions are required. Competing against 1,000 of the country’s best young mathematicians, her result placed her in the top 20 British students.

Her nine-day visit to the training camp, held near Budapest, involved a range of problem solving activities and was attended by both the British and Hungarian squads.

Each day, Lydia worked on her skills for between eight and nine hours.

Lydia has been competing in UK Maths Challenges and Olympiads for the past seven years and has accumulated an amazing ten gold challenge certificates, seven Olympiad distinction awards and four medals for exceptional achievement.

Headmaster Henry Price said: “This is a very special achievement. Lydia’s natural flair for mathematics together with her outstanding commitment to the subject means that this accolade was richly deserved.”

Lydia has just had an offer from Oxford University to study Mathematics.